The report summarizes the events of 2015 which called for the investigation and highlights evidence of no wrongdoing on the part of those investigated. Also included is vital data about the harm incurred by this panel and the significance of continued support for fetal tissue research.

Here are some highlights from the report:

“On July 14, 2015, anti-abortion activist David Daleiden and the “Center for Medical Progress” (“Daleiden/CMP”) publicly released the first of their deceptively-edited videos and falsely alleged that providers and others were “profiting” from the sale of fetal tissue. These videos were the product of a multi-year effort to secretly record Planned Parenthood employees and others in order to entrap them into agreeing to violate the law, which proved unsuccessful. Daleiden and his associates used false names and created a fake company (“BioMax Procurement Services”) to carry out their fraudulent scheme.”

“Adopting McCarthy-era tactics to demand names and bully witnesses, Panel Republicans have conducted an end-to-end attack on fetal tissue donation and women’s health care. Operating largely out of public view, they have abused congressional authority and made repeated inflammatory claims of criminal misconduct in continued reliance on the discredited Daleiden/CMP videos and without any actual evidence of wrongdoing.

Fifteen months and more than $1.5 million taxpayer dollars later, the American people deserve an accurate accounting of what the Select Panel has learned.

Our report makes 14 findings based on the evidence we obtained, and further discredits the inflammatory Daleiden/CMP video allegations. In general, the report finds:

Researchers use fetal tissue because it remains an irreplaceable resource for understanding fetal and human development and seeking treatments and cures for a vast array of conditions – including Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, macular degeneration, and HIV/AIDS – that afflict millions.

Planned Parenthood affiliates do not profit and actually lose money when they facilitate fetal tissue donation, as do other clinics.

The key concern for providers is always patient safety, and they do not alter the timing or method of abortions or violate the “partial birth abortion ban” to enhance fetal tissue donation.

There is no evidence that tissue procurement organizations profit by charging and receiving more for fetal tissue than the costs that they incur for their services.

Our report also documents the harm caused to life-saving research and women’s health care as well as the grave abuses committed by Panel Republicans over the course of this investigation.”

OVERALL CONCLUSION

Like the seventeen other federal and state investigations into the fraudulent Daleiden/CMP video allegations, the Select Panel found no evidence of wrongdoing by health care providers, researchers, or tissue procurement companies.”